Missions and Outreach

LOOKING BACK: Thank You for Making Thanks and Giving Back a Part of Your 2018!

Thank you to the more than 200 church family friends and neighbors who joined us Thanksgiving Day 2018 and volunteered to prepare and deliver meals to over 5,000 needy South Floridians!First UMC Coral Gables, in partnership with Branches, hosted this unique annual event of love and caring on our campus and encouraged each of our church families members and neighbors to sign up at www.branchesful.org/thanksgiving-meal-delivery.

Food items were also dropped off food during any of our church services at 8:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m. or both the 11:00 a.m. Traditional and Latin American services, or at our Church Office from 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Get inspired to see the good that you will be doing by watching these videos of previous years' efforts! The only thing missing is YOU!

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2018 Cross Connect Mission Trip to the Dominican Republic is a Success!

Our dedicated group of missionaries has concluded a very successful mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Thank you to everyone that welcomed us so warmly and partnered with us to make this labor of love a reality! Prayers and blessings to you all.

See pictures below!

2018 Mission Trip: Dominican Republic– Image 1 of 14

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FUMCCG’s Cross Connect Mission Trip 2018 is returning for the second summer to the Dominican Republic this week, from June 11 - June 17, 2018. We are blessed to have 18 missionaries going to represent our church and community!

Included are photos of all of this year's missionaries and we ask that everyone holds them up in prayer.

Our group of dedicated FUMCCG missionaries, now including Youth members, will once again join with local Methodist partners and others to lead a significant expansion of the Methodist Church-created school Evangelico Dominicano Colegio Mixto (Colegio). Our efforts lead up to facilitating the first-ever Christian graduating class in this neighborhood in 2020!

The Colegio brings vitally important, affordable, Christian-based education to the local community for children in grades Kinder-8 but now finds itself in serious disrepair.

This year’s plans include:

Building two additional classrooms on the 2nd floor adjacent to the new classrooms constructed last summer.

Building three new classrooms for toddlers on the lower level.

Constructing a cistern and pump to bring the water supply up to necessary levels.

Completing buildout and equipping of the new Science Lab Refurnishing existing classrooms.

Enclosing the basketball court with chain link fence.

Stay up-to-date with all things related to our mission to the Dominican Republic - made possible by your generosity - by also following us on Twitter and Instagram or liking us on Facebook @fumccg! For questions, please contact Rev. Vidalis Lopez at vlopez@fumccg.org, or Jim Morgan at james.morgan@squirepb.com.

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THE GOOD WE DID!

2017 FUMCCG Youth Mission Trip to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota Was a Success!

From July 7-15, 2017, our FUMCCG Youth Group visited South Dakota to serve the Oglala Lakota tribe of Pine Ridge Reservation. While there, our youth mission team worked at The Dream Center, a program that provides life-changing aid, hunger relief, activities, Christian teaching and worship to Lakota children.

Throughout their service, FUMCCG Youth:

prepared and served nutritious meals to Lakota youth

built a prayer garden

constructed a volleyball court

donated musical equipment and toys

installed an entire sound system for worship services.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is the poorest reservation in our nation. The Wings as Eagles Ministries is located on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the heart of the Badlands. This is a community with high rates of alcoholism, drug use, child abuse, youth suicide and child homelessness.

With God’s guidance, our church’s support and prayers, we hope to be the light of Christ in the darkness of our native lands. “...the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” -Matthew 4:16.

These service projects will make a lasting impact on the daily lives and spiritual growth of Lakota youth, creating a positive environment in the midst of many difficult realities on the reservation.

But this important opportunity could not have happened without the generous support of our FUMCCG family! Your kindness and ongoing support of the youth mission trip, and the various fundraising events leading up to it, have made this loving outreach possible for our 19 students. Equally important, your efforts are contributing to an appreciation for service that can only be garnered through one-on-one experience; and will hopefully serve as a catalyst for a lifetime of generous action and service on behalf of good. Thank you to Miami Music Ministries for donating instruments and musical equipment, and to God for making everything possible.

Please join us in sending prayers, blessings, and good wishes to all involved in this labor of love by posting messages and photos on Facebook, Twitter Instagram, all at the handle @FUMCCG!

MORE: Please check out this WAEM video -https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LWlmWKh3IYw - and be the change that you want to see in the world!

Throughout the year our youth participate in missionary outreach in our South Florida community and in urban and rural settings throughout the U.S. to alleviate the suffering of others. Past FUMCCG youth groups have traveled to Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Panama, and the southeastern United States.

2017 "I Am the Change" Mission Trip to the Dominican Republic

Watch the Video Of Our Story Below!

Meet Our "I Am the Change" Missionaries:

Doing More Good, Every Day:

As our team of loving church family missionaries prepares to leave on our mission for good to the Dominican Republic this week, from June 13-18, we would like to thank each of them for the immense good that they are doing.

We also want to offer our deepest gratitude to you, our greathearted family members, who have made this mission possible through your prayers, incredibly generous contributions and volunteering of your time, creativity, and even health kits! We are so very proud of our family and humbled by your grace!

Please join us in lifting up our prayers on behalf of this mission for love, for this group of loving missionaries, for the wonderful people of the Dominican Republic and our esteemed partners there who will help us deliver on our promise to do more good in more places!

FUMCCG invites you to join us on an expedition of love - a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Our enthusiastic volunteers will serve as a dynamic part of our partnership with a local church in the Dominican Republic, as we help renovate classrooms for elementary students. Our group departs on June 13th and immediately begin making a difference in the community; and returns to Miami on Sunday, June 18, 2017. So, come on board! We need 20 missionaries so let's come together for this unique opportunity to be the change you want to see!